Tetsua Member Username: Tetsua
Post Number: 1176 Registered: 01-2004
| Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 3:56 pm: | |
http://www.current.tv/ Follow the link on the right that says "Re-Greening Detroit". Just wanted to share this video with you all. I'm not real sure about the accuracy of some of this though. |
Jjw Member Username: Jjw
Post Number: 302 Registered: 10-2005
| Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 4:26 pm: | |
interesting. thank you for the link |
Buzzman0077 Member Username: Buzzman0077
Post Number: 68 Registered: 11-2006
| Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 5:32 pm: | |
It seemed to me that the video was skewed to make Detroit look like more of a barren wasteland than it is. It begs a few questions, biggest of which when was it shot? Because there are many days when CBD looks much busier with much more foot traffic. What was his agenda for making this video? Because he seemed to pick out places, and times where it look much more rural than most of the city. |
Birdwoman Member Username: Birdwoman
Post Number: 9 Registered: 06-2006
| Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 6:05 pm: | |
Judging from the state of the vegetation and the height of the corn, I'd say mid-summer. I did not recognize the "biologists" but as an ornithologist I would not credit the de-population of the city with an increase in Red-tailed Hawks. They nest in woodlots or forests, not the open field areas typical of the "urban prairie," although they may hunt there. |
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser
Post Number: 77 Registered: 08-2006
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 9:13 am: | |
I remember seeing an article last year talking about the greening of Detroit as evidenced by aerial photos. With grass and weeds growing up in abandoned parking lots and even on TOP of abandoned buildings, from the air, Detroit is getting greener by the day as nature starts taking back over. A big surprise for me was seeing large trees growing out of the windows of abandoned high rises due to birds depositing seeds inside the buildings with open windows. Is there room for a 'Central Park' in the downtown area now? |
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul
Post Number: 923 Registered: 10-2006
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 9:32 am: | |
Seems to most that the parks in the downtown are rather appropriately scaled for the architecture. A 'Central Park' would definitely be too big for Detroit. |
Ro_resident Member Username: Ro_resident
Post Number: 226 Registered: 11-2003
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 10:08 am: | |
A woman was finishing up her Ph.D. dissertation on the greening of Detroit when I started planning school. She compared a time series of Landsat images to note the change in vegetation over time, then compared that to changes in Census data over the same time period. Here is a sample of her work: http://www-personal.umich.edu/ ~copyrght/image/solstice/sols1 96.html |
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser
Post Number: 81 Registered: 08-2006
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 10:58 am: | |
I think her study is what I read and then saw the results myself as we rode through Detroit and Highland Park. A question, can Elm trees now be planted and successfully grown in Detroit or is the dreaded Dutch Elm Disease still present? I would think that all the Elm Trees really contributed to the beauty of the city. If possible, seems like a great community project to replant the trees or something as pretty and hearty. |
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed
Post Number: 704 Registered: 04-2006
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 11:16 am: | |
The main problem I have with this documentary is that de-industrialization did not kill the city center, as is the point that the film tries to conclude. |
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser
Post Number: 82 Registered: 08-2006
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 1:18 pm: | |
I see your point there and understand why people in Detroit would be sensitive to a Japanese-American (?) making the point that the declining auto industry is the only reason for all of the decline, especially as the Japanese auto industry is growing. There was no mention of the riots or present-day crime and their affect on the decline. |
Deandub11 Member Username: Deandub11
Post Number: 105 Registered: 05-2006
| Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 7:22 pm: | |
Well I dont think the fact that he was asian american has anything to do with it. As pointed out by Iheart, the decline of the auto industry had nothing to do with this. Obviously everyone knows, and he even mentions it, that the abandonment of the city has been going on for 40 years. The fact that he blamed this on the relatively recent phenomenon of the american auto industry in serious trouble is ridiculous. I like current, but that doc was just dumb. |